Novel Finished

Things have been quiet on this blog lately, because I’ve been working on finally finishing the novel I started way back in early 2011. Even though I put it aside at various times to work on other writing-related things, its weighed heavily on me the past six months or so that it still wasn’t complete. More than anything I just wanted to have it off my plate–not that I don’t think it’s good; it’s great, really–but it’s taken up such a monumental amount of time and effort for one project, and there are so many other things I’d like to get to that have remained on the back burner until it was done.

Of course, even now, it’s not done done. As of this writing I’ve finished the synopsis, but I’m still putting some final touches on the query letter. And the text itself, while “complete,” would still need to be copy-edited before being self-published (if that is the route I eventually take). But at least, barring a request from a publisher, I won’t be making any story-related changes to it from here on out. And I’m certainly never going through it again from top to bottom looking for things to fix. That ship has sailed, and a bittersweet parting it is.

As far as a post-mortem goes, maybe I will write more about the process once I know its ultimate fate. Certainly I’ve learned a monumental amount about writing in the last two years, some of which I’ve shared here already. It’s hard for me to know at this point what would be insightful information and what would be rambling. If I do so happen to be able to take part in the publishing process, I’ll do my best to document it here. If not, maybe I will do a longer write-up on the process of creating the book and the things I would have done differently when it comes time to release it (and it will be released eventually, in some form; it’s too good to go to waste).

So what now? Well, while I’m waiting for the query responses to come back, I’ll have more time to update this blog. I also have a file on my PC with about two dozen story ideas that I’ve jotted down as I was writing this novel and the other things I finished in the interim. Most of them are simple things, interesting nuggets that need to be expanded with more character and world building before I can tell if they’re viable. In theory it would be nice to produce short stories out of them, some of which could then be extended into longer works; sort of a double bang for my idea buck, as it were. In reality, a few of my favorites might not work in a short story format, which means I’ll have to make some hard decisions about committing to a longer work right away. In any case, stay tuned in 2013 for more original speculative fiction and hopefully news about the novel as well. I’m off to enjoy some holiday R&R.